Shop

Shop

La 2007

In this second part of our chat with Honda's Stephen Ellis we continue our discussion of the Honda Home Energy Station and get into the costs and practicality of hydrogen as a fuel. Read part one here.

Following the unveiling of the new Honda FCX Clarity at the recent LA Auto Show, I sat down for another chat with Stephen Ellis. Steve is the Marketing manager for alternative fuel programs at Honda of America. We discussed the new car, Honda's Home Energy Station and hydrogen cost and availability.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger certainly likes to look green when new cars are displayed. I remember the excitement when he arrived at the unveiling of the Tesla Roadster back in the summer of 2006. Sometimes, of course, the Governator's green sheen is less glorious, like with the GM flex-fuel vehicles controversy. But, at the LA Auto Show this week, Governor Schwarzenegger was happy to visit the Volkswagen booth to check out the new space up! blue concept car.

Shane wrote about the CNG powered American Roadster last week and it is indeed an odd bird. The long-nosed, three-wheeler has unique styling, but its creator John Green claims it has amazing handling and stability. The Roadster is available with a choice of two natural gas-fueled engines, an air-cooled four cylinder boxer engine that looks vaguely familiar to the ones that used to power a certain German small car. The other option is a water-cooled three cylinder. We came across Mr. Green at the

Alongside the debut of the 2009 FCX Clarity, Honda also showed off the latest fourth generation version of their Home Energy Station (HES). The concept of the HES is to provide a self-contained unit to use a home's natural gas supply to heat the house, heat water, produce electricity and fuel a hydrogen car. The HES unit includes a steam reformer system to produce hydrogen from the gas, and a fuel cell of its own to provide electricity for the home. According to Honda's Stephen Ellis, using this

Shortly after GM had their press conference at the LA Auto Show announcing the new Silverado hybrid and the new Tahoe and Yukon hybrids, Toyota took the wraps off the new 2008 Sequoia full-size SUV. While the big GM trucks have a hybrid system that delivers 21 mpg in the city, hybrid pioneer Toyota can only offer 14 mpg in the city from either the 4.7L or 5.7L V-8 with no prospect of a hybrid anytime soon. They will, however, offer a flex-fuel option for the first time, starting in the fall of 2

At the LA Auto Show today, Chrysler showed their upcoming Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen Hybrids for the first time at an auto show although it's not the first time we've seen them. We actually got to drive a prototype last June at the Chrysler Proving Ground. Chrysler is still nearly a year away from production of their first hybrids and obviously the mileage numbers are not finalized yet. But when Executive VP for product development Frank Klegon made the announcement, he said the Chrysler

At the New York Auto Show last April GM unveiled a trio of Chevrolet badged mini-cars dubbed the Beat, the Trax and the Groove. All three were designed by stylists from GM Korean studios on the companies new global mini-car platform. At the time the company launched a web-site were visitors could vote for their favorite. The bright green two door Beat got almost half of the over 1.8 million votes followed by the Groove with the Trax coming in last.